How Strategic Communication Shapes Value and Innovation in Society by van Ruler Betteke;Smit Iekje;Ihlen Øyvind;Romenti Stefania;

Author:van Ruler, Betteke;Smit, Iekje;Ihlen, Øyvind;Romenti, Stefania;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
Published: 2017-10-10T00:00:00+00:00

Key Transition 3. A New Professional Attitude: From Skilled Craftsmen to Reflective Practitioners

A professional is a person that has access to a certain body of knowledge and skills. That, however, is not enough. A professional also has to know what kind of knowledge and skills is needed in a particular situation. Professionals must be prepared to choose the right intervention at the right time, in dialog with their surroundings. They have to be reflective professionals that know what to do in a specific context. It is in interaction with the situation that a professional attitude reveals itself (Schön, 1983, p. 49 ff.).

For a long time professionals were regarded as skilled craftsman, as persons who were able to translate scientific knowledge into practical solutions. Such a scientific-technological approach, however, does not work any longer. Due to a growing complexity in our society, communication professionals nowadays have to act adequately in individual, unique, and basically unrepeatable situations. In working situations a lot of improvisation is needed. For long time professionals could rely on standard methods that were considered to be effective always and everywhere. Nowadays they have to develop time and again new knowledge and skills in dialog with various stakeholders in a variety of contexts (Gibbons et al., 1994).

For communication professionals this means that they cannot just rely on the expertise learned. They have to reflect on their own functioning as a professional and the role that they play within an organization or a particular social context. They must be accountable and responsive and also have to be aware of their personal and professional limitations. For the education of future communication professionals this means that transfer of knowledge and skills is not enough. Students have to develop their knowledge and skills in direct interaction with the working field and have to learn to ask the right questions. This implies that within the working field laboratories and learning environments have to be developed in which practitioners, lecturers, and students learn from each other and from the way they encounter new unexpected situations.

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